The New Mission of the Screenwriter
Our job is this:
To create the emotional experience of watching the movie on the screen.
It’s Not About The Plot
Too often, the new writer thinks MORE plot will save them. This is rarely, if ever, true. One of my biggest realizations from breaking down the structure of screenplays was seeing just how simple the plots actually are.
Defining Story Structure
You will use structure whether you like it or not. You really have no choice. All you ever do when you are writing is decide what the audience knows and when they know it.
Why Star Wars: The Force Awakens Made Me Feel Terrible
This is a movie the studio makes when they really want to reboot a franchise for a younger generation but know the older fans would raze the studio if they did. Charged with that task, I think they did as good of a job as we can reasonably expect.